To celebrate 2014, I’ve created five top-five lists for your enjoyment. I’ve had fun writing the While We’re Waiting editions on Thursdays this year. Who knows if I’ll do one on Christmas or New Year’s Day in the next two weeks … so I thought I’d commemorate some of the bests of the year in today’s post.
And. Away. We. Go. *cues Billy Eichner videos*
Five best under-the-radar Ohio sports moments of 2014
As you know, WFNY is counting down the top 10 Cleveland sports stories of 2014 right now. I wrote the nomination for the announced Progressive Field renovations. Here, I’ll share five other memories that didn’t make our final cut but stand out in my mind from the past year:
5: Drafting Justin Gilbert at No. 8: I present to you a short tale in two tweets.
Bar guy is down. He wanted Johnny. pic.twitter.com/9xM2GiAsIY
— Jacob Rosen (@WFNYJacob) May 9, 2014
No one will remember this as the Justin Gilbert draft. It will always be the Johnny draft.
— Jacob Rosen (@WFNYJacob) May 9, 2014
4: That OKC game: Remember that fateful cold evening in late February? It feels like an eternity ago. But somehow, the Cavs pre-The Return scored 42 (!) fourth-quarter points to win at Oklahoma City. It was one of my favorite games from those dreaded four years.
3: Browns destroy the Bengals: Again, this feels like forever ago. Except this time, it literally was only five weeks ago on Thursday Night Football. The Browns won 24-3 in thoroughly dominating fashion. Andy Dalton was horrendous. Brian Hoyer was efficient. The running game was unstoppable. It was as much fun I’ve had watching a Browns game in a long time.
2: Lonnie Baseball beats Texas: A guy who barely snagged a 2014 starting job and might not have a 2015 starting role arguably had one of the best single-game hitting performances in major league history this season. It was Monday, June 9. Chisenhall finished 5-for-5 with a double, three homers and nine RBI in the 17-7 victory. Tom Hamilton’s radio call of that last homer in the eighth? Man, oh man. Doesn’t get much better.
1: Dayton makes Elite Eight: Sure, this is a homer pick for the UD alumnus. But it was just so shocking. The Ohio State game-winner? OK, you’ve got my attention. The Syracuse upset? Hello there, Sweet Sixteen. And then the convincing victory over Stanford.
Dayton's campus right now via @joecapka. pic.twitter.com/NToo66AV6a
— Jacob Rosen (@WFNYJacob) March 28, 2014
I convinced several fellow recent graduates to join me in driving down to Dayton with this rallying cry: “Dayton last made the Elite Eight in 1984! If there’s another 30-year drought … we might have grandkids! We have to go!” That Saturday night on campus, even with the rain and the depressing Florida loss, was one of the most fun nights of my life. Chris Moorman sent in a great article on what it meant for the university.
Five fascinating random Cleveland sports stats of 2014
No rhyme or reason to these stats. Some are good, some are bad. But they all deserve the #fascinating tag.
5: Mike Brown’s playoff streak: The 2013-14 Cleveland Cavaliers were the first Mike Brown-influenced team to miss the playoffs since … the 1998-99 Washington Wizards. He had made the playoffs for three straight years on San Antonio’s staff, two on Indiana’s and then five straight with LeBron James in Cleveland. He coached the Lakers to the playoffs in 2011-12, then they later made the playoffs after firing him five games into 2012-13. There you have it, deservedly or not, it was 12 in a row for Mike Brown.
4: Browns and 4-4 at home: You can thank the Browns PR department for sharing this one: This year’s 4-4 home record is tied for the second-best in franchise history since 1999. Isn’t that unbelievable? They went 7-1 at home in 2007. And .500 at home in 2014, 2012, 2005 and 2001. Overall, the Browns are 48-80 (.375) at home since their return, by far the NFL’s worst. Every other NFL team has a .579 home win percentage since 1999.
3: Indians righty batters against southpaws: An easy place to pinpoint the Tribe’s slight regression from 92 to 85 wins in 2014 is the right-handed bats. In 2013, Cleveland righties ranked fourth in baseball with its .271/.348/.449 line against lefties. Obviously, Ryan Raburn’s hot season was a big part of this. In 2014? The Indians slumped down to a .249/.312/.373 line in this category, the No. 24 OPS. Raburn was bad. Nick Swisher was hurt. Yan Gomes was really the only reliable right-handed bat. It was a sizeable drop-off.
2: The Indians’ great finish: Despite the offensive struggles, this was still a really, really good team for four months. A statistical explanation in two tweets:
The #Indians were 24-30 (.444) on May 28. They finished season on a 61-47 (.565) run. That's really impressive.
— Jacob Rosen (@WFNYJacob) September 28, 2014
At #WFNY today: Non-Klubers in Aug/Sept were nearly as good as Kluber's entire season. http://t.co/fqFxb7XiM2 pic.twitter.com/YBTbyNk1RD
— Jacob Rosen (@WFNYJacob) December 3, 2014
1: LeBron’s 40,861 career minutes: That’s including regular season and playoffs. He’s either No. 45 or No. 46 in NBA history right now, going back-and-forth with Jason Terry. Both just passed Magic Johnson and Allen Iverson in the past week. Up next are Walt Bellamy, Derek Harper, Larry Bird and Sam Perkins. This is kind of a big deal, folks.
Five best Cleveland sports Twitter accounts of 2014
Honorable mentions go out to @CSAviate (face tattoo!), @BrownsMemes (Kevin Love puns FTW), @Monte_Colorman (so, so, so good), @JohnAxford (despite the mid-season trade) and @Tooleyj24 (minor league shoutout).
5: @WayneEmbrysKids: The Godfather of Cavs Twitter. The creator of the legendary Cavs Zine. The founder of the #MEVSNUGGETS heart-attack-waiting-to-happen. He’ll occasionally go on rants related to The Decision, but it’s all worth it. Don’t forget: Jack Sanders also is a great person, too. So sad he left us here in Northeast Ohio.
4: @FearTheSword: Can I also give FTS writer Ryan Mourton the “Most Improved” award, too? My Sloan travel buddy has increased the frequency of tweets from the Cavs blog account and has really grown its popularity. There are so many *fire emoji* tweets here. Online Ryan can be intense sometimes, but so can in-person Ryan. It works really well.
3: @Sportsyelling: Yes, she has been doing some videos for WFNY, so you can blame me for some homerism here. But she’s great. I really don’t know what to say if you aren’t following her yet. Just be prepared for the … um … yelling. And lots of wine. And lots of fawning over Kevin Love. And, of course, lots of Indians talk 24/7.
2: @DionWaiters3: Dion hasn’t tweeted since the national anthem/religious controversy earlier this season. But this summer? Good golly. His signature Twitter move is a late-night spree of manual reply/retweets. Just take a look at this mid-July string of tweets. Nothing was more entertaining than watching Dion get going on Twitter.
1: @TheRealSlamtana: If you asked me in July or August, Dion would’ve had this in the bag. But Carlos had a fantastic close to the season with his Japan tweets and stole the show. He loves replying to everyone and also has goofy tricks up his sleeves. He even pays attention to WFNY, too.
Thank you !! @WFNYArticles
— Carlos Santana MLB (@TheRealSlamtana) December 2, 2014
Five most distinctive Northeast Ohio food locations
As you likely know, I moved out to Oregon this fall to start graduate school. I’m home in Akron winter break now, but was just thinking: What are the places that taste like home? What places did I miss the most? After polling on Twitter last night, here is my list.
5: Winking Lizard – Yes, it’s a regional chain. Yes, the food isn’t that great outside of a few classics. But to me, the popcorn and the menu and the lizard … that just feels like home. When I’m in town, I’m usually at the Montrose location a few times a week. When my Dayton friends are around, I’m at the Rockside location. The Lizard is just such a NE Ohio staple.
4: Pizza – I like pizza. This shouldn’t be surprising considering I run @PizzaRoundup, a Twitter account solely dedicated to pizza. So I had difficult picking which NE Ohio pizza to recognize. I’m partial to my hometown Luigi’s in Akron. On the east side, Mama Santa’s has long been a favorite. On the west side, I’ve gone to Angelo’s quite a lot. And in the south side, I’m hoping to give Romito’s another shot as it’s my buddy Ron’s favorite. #teampizza
3: Swenson’s – Akron’s classic drive-in burger and milkshake restaurant. A galley boy and teezers, thank you very much. If you live in the region and haven’t been to Swenson’s, I really don’t know what to tell you. Want to make plans? I’m in town for two weeks more and can’t really turn down any offers for Swenson’s.
2: Melt – A little Man vs. Food publicity has elevated Melt’s stature in the last few years. I didn’t really know much about it until the show, but now I almost feel obligated to go every time I’ve got a visitor in town. True story: I once tried to order the challenge grilled cheese with like 20 different cheeses. They told me no. they said it’d be disgusting to eat, would take an hour to make and just would not be enjoyable. I learned a valuable life lesson that day.
1: Sokolowski’s – Admission: I haven’t been here. But when you think of Cleveland, you think of a place like this. Pierogies. Polish food. All of the butter. I’m so pumped to finally go here soon. This is Cleveland on a plate.
Five great Cleveland sports bloggers that I met in 2014
One of my favorite things about writing for Waiting For Next Year is the tight-knit community. I’ve been super lucky to meet most of the long-time WFNY writers. Because of those connections, I’ve also chatted with lots and lots of other writers and Twitter personalities. In this section, I’ll recognize some of the fellow Cleveland sports bloggers I was able to meet in 2014.
Honorable mentions to Amin Vafa (@AminNBA), Scotty Barkett (@ScottyB330), Matt Borcas (@MattBorcas), August Fagerstrom (@AugustF_ABJ), Carter Rodriguez (@Carter_Shade) and Joseph Mastrantoni (@WFNYJoe). And i’m sure I’m missing some others I met this year as well.
5: @wjcgibson: Can I call Will Gibson the new Denny Mayo? Who would that offend the most? Either way, Will has been a fantastic addition to the WFNY staff this year. I got to hang with him and David Zavac over drinks at Porco tiki bar last weekend. It was great. Will is much taller than I expected.
4: @nominataur: Jeff Nomina, king of some great #hotsportstakes on Twitter, is near impossible to track down sometimes. ‘Tis the life of a dad with a youngin’, but I was excited to finally meet him – and @CavsFangelo and many others from Cavs Twitter – at an Indians game earlier this season.
#cavstwitter @ the @indians game. @WFNYJacob @WFNYKirk @DavidZavac @Nominataur @CavsFangelo pic.twitter.com/CHVTkNovh0
— Ben Cox (@WFNYBen) May 8, 2014
3: @cavsanada: Justin Rowan made his annual trek to Cleveland for a string of games in late March. There was some glorious Akron hanging out. It included the aforementioned Ryan Mourton, Patrick Elder and Zavac. I’m now pretty bummed I’ll likely be missing Justin’s visit this year. Winnipeg is close to Oregon, right?
2: @conradkaznba: The editor emeritus of Fear The Sword, Conrad Kazcmarek, has always made me feel really old. I point that out a lot because I was used to being the kid of Cleveland sports Twitter for so long. But Conrad really is super bright. I met him at Sloan in March. He landed a sweet gig with the NBA, so that’s why he’s no longer blogging.
1: @firejb_: My No. 1 choice is Zack Luby, a criminally under-followed fellow Oregonian-by-way-of-Ohio. Zack created the Fire Jon Barry social media personality for Haralabos Voulgaris’ contest a few years back. Zack follows the NBA intensely and is quirky, as you’d expect from a new Portland resident who spent a long time in Vermont. He also gave me a ride to the airport the other day, so I can attest that he’s an incredibly nice dude, too.
There you go, folks! In 2015, WFNY will celebrate its 7th birthday. We’re so very thankful to have you loyal readers and our incredible community here. You all really are the best.